Tag: Lebanon
Lebanon PM backs Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi case
AFP | Lebanon's premier-designate Saad Hariri threw his support behind Saudi Arabia Tuesday as it faces outrage over the murder of Saudi journalist and government...
Moscow suggests cooperation with US on return of Syrian refugees
AFP | Moscow has put forward plans to Washington to cooperate on the safe return of refugees to Syria, the Russian ministry of defense said...
Xinjiang: Pan-Turkism fuels China’s hearts-and-minds campaign
Dr. James M. Dorsey | Chinese efforts to woo Saudi Arabia’s ethnic Chinese community highlight the People’s Republic’s effort to avert criticism from the Muslim...
ISIS and Al-Qaeda: The Muslim Jihadist Organizations or the Covert Projects...
Merwah Qureshi | Terrorism has engulfed the whole globe but it has played havoc in the Muslim world. The world has known famous and notorious...
Middle Eastern rivalry spills onto Asian soccer pitches
James M. Dorsey Saudi Arabia’s bitter rivalry with Iran has spilled onto Asian soccer pitches with the newly created South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF)reflecting the...
The Game-Changers
Ikram Sehgal | With US President Trump scrapping the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions, the possibility of conflict in the region has increased dramatically....
Lebanon’s new electoral law: what you need to know
AFP | Lebanon is set to hold its first parliamentary vote in nearly a decade on May 6, after a drawn-out political stalemate finally produced...
Donald Trump accepts Kim Jong Un’s invitation for a meeting: History...
In what might be the most crucial development of this year so far, President of United States Of America Donald Trump has accepted an...
Angelina Jolie urges UN to solve Syrian crisis
AFP | UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie urged the UN Security Council to "find a way" to solve Syria's nearly eight-year war during a tour...
Video of stray dog poisoning sparks outrage in Lebanon
AFP | Video footage of stray dogs apparently being poisoned by municipal staff has sparked a public outcry in Lebanon, with politicians rushing to post...
Turbulence in the Heart of Islam
James M Dorsey | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has won the first round of what could prove to be an unprecedented power grab...
Saudi Arabia’s Lebanon gamble may pay off
James M. Dorsey | Time will tell, but Saudi Arabia’s gamble to pressure Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed, Lebanese Shiite militia, by forcing Saad Hariri, the country’s...
Hezbollah has slowly emerged as the winner amid the Gulf Crisis
Reuters When Iran declared victory over Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, it hailed the "strong and pivotal" role played by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. The praise,...
Selfie of Jewish man in Masjid-Nabwi sparks outrage
News Desk Russian-born Jewish man Ben Tzion 31, sparked outrage on the Internet when his selfie in the sacred mosque of Masjid-e-Nabwi in Medina, Saudi...
Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s achilles heel
James M. Dorsey | Emboldened by perceived White House support, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have stepped up his risky, so far...
Rouhani declares the end of ISIS. What next now for Iran?
News Analysis | Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday announced the end of the Islamic State (ISIS), a brutal militant organization that proliferated in Iraq...
Is the transition in the Middle East another battle for control?
James M. Dorsey | The transition is the name of the game in the Middle East and North Africa. The question is the transition to...
Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador from Germany over Lebanon comments
Reuters | Saudi Arabia has summoned its ambassador in Germany home for consultations over comments allegedly made by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel during a...
Qatar claims Saudi involvement in Lebanon similar to Gulf Crisis
AFP | Qatar's foreign minister on Friday compared Saudi Arabia's political maneuvers in Lebanon to its boycott of his country and accused Riyadh of a...
Will Lebanon pay the price of Saudi Intervention?
James M Dorsey | The proof will be in the pudding when Prime Minister Saad Hariri returns home in the coming days to a country...
Lebanon to be sanctioned by other Arab states claims Hariri
Reuters | Saad al-Hariri warned on Sunday Lebanon was at risk of Gulf Arab sanctions because of the Shi'ite group Hezbollah's regional meddling and said...
Macron travels to Saudi Arabia as controversy over Harriri heats up
Reuters | French President Emmanuel Macron held hastily scheduled talks in Riyadh on Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia...
Lebanon asks western powers to help with PM Hariri’s release from...
Reuters | Lebanon believes Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as prime minister on Saturday while in Saudi Arabia, is being held by Riyadh, and Beirut plans to work...
Saudi-“Israeli” Leaks: Collusion Or Opportunism?
Andrew Korybko | Nobody’s disputing that Saudi Arabia and “Israel” have cooperated before in sowing regional chaos and trying to “contain” Iran, but this time...
‘Coup de Grace’ of the Old System in Saudi Arabia
Gen (r) Mirza Aslam Beg | While the courts of justice were functioning in Saudi Arabia, the crackdown in the name of corruption, in the absence...
Lebanon: A new theater opens for Iran and Saudi Arabia?
Syed Ali Zia Jaffery | Amidst simmering crises in the Middle East, Lebanon finds itself in the thick of things as Saudi Arabia on Monday...
The Middle East: It will only get worse
James M. Dorsey | As Saudi Arabia reels from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s frontal assault on the kingdom’s elite, indications are that the Saudi-Iranian proxy...
Will US succeed in creating rifts between Iran & Iraq?
M K Bhadrakumar| The US project to create a rift between Iraq and Iran backfired just a couple of days of its launch from Riyadh...
Is Pakistan ready to fight a Hybrid war?
Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal | The adversaries have been successfully operating hybrid warfare techniques to bleed Pakistan. They failed to coerce or frighten Islamabad with...
‘Repercussions’ of the US bid to isolate Iran!
Asif Haroon Raja| Iran under Reza Shah Pahlavi enjoyed best of relations with the United States of America (USA) as well as Kingdom of Saudi...
Division within Palestinian resistant movements
M K Bhadrakumar | The Hamas and Fatah, the two mainstream Palestinian movements, are making yet another attempt at political reconciliation. Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah...
The Gulf crisis: Fighting it out down and dirty
James M. Dorsey | In the three-month old Gulf crisis, nothing is too expensive or too down and dirty when it comes to buying influence,...
Why Israel is flexing muscles at Hezbollah
M K Bhadrakumar | The Israeli armed forces began on Tuesday a massive fortnight-long military exercise, billed as the biggest in the past 19 years, simulating a war...
Trump’s hawkish diplomacy may compel Tehran to go nuclear
News Analysis | Iran's atomic chief on Tuesday stated that the country needs only five days to shift its uranium enrichment above 19% that is...
US moves against Iran raise spectre of wider regional conflict
James M. Dorsey | US President Donald J. Trump. in a step that could embolden Saudi Arabia to move ahead with plans to destabilize Iran,...
Jackson report puts Saudi Arabia and UK in a tight spot
James Dorsey | A report charging Saudi Arabia with funding extremism in Britain puts both the Kingdom and Prime Minister Teresa May on the spot. The report...